Guide to Flattening PDFs Using Syncfusion API

16 Feb 20264 minutes to read

This feature enables you to flatten annotations and form fields in a PDF document. To use this functionality, you need to provide a PDF document as input to the Flatten PDF API.

Flatten PDF Document

To flatten a PDF document, send a request to the /v1/edit-pdf/flatten endpoint with the input PDF and its options as shown below.

Curl

curl --location 'http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/flatten' \
--form 'file=@Input.pdf' \
--form 'settings={
  "File": "file",
  "Password": null,
  "FlattenFormFields": true,
  "FlattenAnnotations": true
}'

JavaScript

const formdata = new FormData();
formdata.append("file", fileInput.files[0], "Form.pdf");
formdata.append(
  "settings",
  JSON.stringify({
    File: "file",
    Password: null,
    FlattenFormFields: true,
    FlattenAnnotations: true
  })
);

const requestOptions = {
  method: "POST",
  body: formdata,
  redirect: "follow"
};

fetch("http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/flatten", requestOptions)
  .then((response) => response.text())
  .then((result) => console.log(result))
  .catch((error) => console.error(error));

C#

var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/flatten");
var content = new MultipartFormDataContent();
content.Add(new StreamContent(File.OpenRead("Input.pdf")), "file1", "Input.pdf");

var settings = new
{
    File = "file",
    Password = (string?)null,
    FlattenFormFields = true,
    FlattenAnnotations = true
};

var json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(settings);
var settingsContent = new StringContent(json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
// When sending JSON as a field inside multipart, you can still name the part:
content.Add(settingsContent, "settings");
request.Content = content;

var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

Once the request is sent, it will create a flatten job to flatten the PDF and return the job details as follows:

{
    "jobID": "6be827c5-d86d-4fe5-9bd5-c8fd5887a455",
    "status": "requested",
    "createdAt": "2024-05-06T09:39:13.9505828Z"
}

Poll the status of the Flatten Pages Job

Next, you can retrieve the job status by sending a request to the /v1/edit-pdf/status/{jobID} endpoint with the job ID.

Curl

curl --location 'http://localhost:8003/v1/conversion/status/f58c9739-622e-41d4-9dd2-57a901dc13c3' \
  --output Output.pdf
--header 'Authorization: Bearer '

JavaScript

const requestOptions = {
  method: "GET",
  redirect: "follow"
};

fetch("http://localhost:8003/v1/edit-pdf/status/4413bbb5-6b26-4c07-9af2-c26cd2c42fe3", requestOptions)
  .then((response) => response.text())
  .then((result) => console.log(result))
  .catch((error) => console.error(error));

C#

var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "http://localhost:8003/v1/conversion/status/ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df");
request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Bearer ");
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());

You will receive one of the following statuses until the job is completed. Upon completion, you will receive the actual output file.

Job Statuses:

• Queued:

{
    "jobID": "4b2782b2-9f08-478b-98fc-4464bd219ca0",
    "status": "queued"
}

• In Progress:

{
    "jobID": "ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df",
    "status": "in progress"
}

• Error:

{
    "jobID": "ef0766ab-bc74-456c-8143-782e730a89df",
    "status": "errror",
    "code": "500",
    "message": "Failed to convert the document to PDF"        
}

NOTE

The Syncfusion Document Processing API is now available as a Docker-based solution. Try it out